Converse ★ Anomaly
Converse is an Anomaly. It is a Fashion brand that is adored by pretty much everyone. Yes, there are other brands that share those qualities – but how many do you know that are proudly worn by the old and the young alike? Teenagers would usually give a very wide berth to a brand worn by their parents – that’s not the case with Converse. The brand’s longstanding and deep-rooted connection with music puts it at the heart of culture, regardless of time.
That makes it a gift to market. A brand that is so ingrained in culture doesn’t really need campaign ‘advertising’ – it simply needs to continue deepening it’s connection to that culture. If you create culture – you don’t have to interrupt it*. Our job (as Anomaly) is simply to connect the brand to it’s audience via that cultural passion point and to not let unnecessary messaging get in the way.
And what better way to do that than by borrowing a few heavyweight music icons (established/current/upcoming) and creating a ‘pop-up’ band/record/video. And then, simply add a healthy sprinkling of music style marketing on top of that collaboration. So that’s what we did. We married Bernard Sumner (New Order/Joy Division), Alexis Taylor & Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) and (Hot City) to create this (free-to-download) track and video (the latter of which was launched this morning):
Sort of like becoming a record label.
And as a sort-of record label we employed a collective of graffiti artists to create huge big murals in key cities (their cities) across the country that feature the musicians involved.
We also took over key locations with the bands imagery.
Plus, just to be sure, we invited upcoming acts including Chew Lips and Hudson Mohawke to remix the track. And we activated student unions and created bespoke collateral for retailers.
I’d be surprised if you haven’t encountered the work.
Watch this space as we have a second track, featuring Graham Coxon, Paloma Faith and Bill Rider Jones, formerly of the Coral, that’ll be released in January.
Download track here.
Converse UK here.
Converse Blog here.
*Paul Graham November 2010.
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If the guys at Myspace were slightly smarter, they’d do exactly the same.
[...] film about one of the Graff techniques we employed for the Converse Bernard Sumner (Joy Division/ New Order), Hot Chip and Hot City track promotion. The idea being that anyone can create a canvas anywhere by wrapping big huge [...]
[...] Our latest connectivity track, Desire has launched today. The track was created by Paloma Faith, Graham Coxon and Bill Ryder-Jones and is as the next installment in our line of music collaborations. [...]